OTTAWA – After months of resisting any changes to the Fair Elections Act, the Conservative government on Friday announced it was willing to make amendments to the contentious electoral reform, but won’t go as far as the legion of critics who denounced the bill as undemocratic would like.

Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre said he is willing to amend the bill by allowing a form of vouching for voters who have identification that doesn’t list their home addresses.

The government will also clarify provisions that critics say muzzle the chief electoral officer; scrap a part of the bill that would have allowed parties to exempt the cost of fundraising calls to past donors from their reportable election expenses; and back down on a clause that would have let parties choose polling location supervisors.

It will also heed recommendations to increase the length of time political call centres must retain their records – to three years, up from the one year currently proposed by the bill.

The broad range of amendments the government is now proposing surpasses even those suggested by a Conservative-dominated Senate committee and signales the government is responsive to the avalanche of criticism the Fair Elections Act has received from academics and elections officials past and present.

But, as Poilievre allowed, many will still be unhappy with the proposed law, in particular the government’s commitment to end the practice of vouching for voters who don’t have any ID.

The changes he announced will still require voters to show some form of ID but will let those who don’t have a home address listed on their documents to sign an “oath of residence” to obtain a ballot.

Another voter ­who has valid ID with an address must co-sign the oath to attest that the person lives where he or she claims. A voter can co-sign only one other voter’s oath. The penalty for a false declaration will be a $50,000 fine and the process will be subject to mandatory audit.

Poilievre said the government is holding firm on its position that all voters must show ID to cast a ballot.

“Given that oaths will not suffice to prove identity, no one will be allowed to vote without presenting documented ID,” Poilievre said in a prepared statement.

The change comes in response to concerns that some voters could still have trouble proving they live in the riding where they want to vote, even though they have one of the 39 pieces of ID that the bill allows for voting.

Student cards or social insurance number cards, for example, don’t have home addresses. And even though documents such as utility bills can be used as a secondary piece of identification to prove address, the transition to paperless billing means some people don’t have the documents available to take with them to the polls. People who move may also not have up-to-date ID with their new addresses.

The amendment proposed by Poilievre stops short of preserving the system currently in place, which allows voters to “vouch” for others who have no ID whatsoever. Numerous critics of the bill warned that ending vouching could disenfranchise more than 100,000 voters.

Poilievre also did not address the issue of the voter information cards (VICs), which Elections Canada mails out and accepts as a form of identification. The Fair Elections Act no longer allows VICs to be used as a secondary piece of ID to prove address.

“There will be critics who will still not be satisfied,” Poilievre said in a prepared statement. “Some will oppose the bill no matter what, for their own reasons, and I am at peace with that.”

NDP democratic reform critic Craig Scott called the changes a “climbdown” from a minister who previously said the bill was terrific and said that while the amendments are helpful, there are still major problems in the legislation.

Scott said he’s concerned some voters who were vouched for in past elections will still be disenfranchised, even with the new oath of residence, particularly homeless people. He is also concerned about the franchise of the estimated 400,000 who voted in 2011 using VICs to prove residence, especially elderly people in retirement homes and students living on campus.

The new system of signing oaths, he said, will needlessly jam up polling stations when using the VIC to prove residence along with another piece of ID would have been sufficient and created much less paperwork.

“Mr Anti Red Tape is likely creating a situation where you’re going to have much more vouching than you’re seeking to replace,” he said.

But Fair Vote Canada, a group that actively opposed the bill and launched an online petition against it, called the changes announced by Poilievre a “major win” for Canadian democracy.

Poilievre said the government will also support amendments to make clear that the Chief Electoral Officer and the Commissioner of Canada Elections, who enforces elections law, can communicate directly with the public about “any matter.”

Some feared the law, as drafted, would have kept the officials from providing information about, for example, investigations of alleged wrongdoing, such as the report issued Thursday that concluded there was no attempt to mislead voters with telephone calls in 2011 election, outside of Guelph.

But Poilievre said the government is firm on changes that will restrict Elections Canada’s advertising to providing only information about voting dates and locations and ID requirements. The agency will, however, be able to conduct voter education in primary and secondary schools, but not in universities or on First Nation reserves, where turnouts tend to be low.

The bill’s exemption of fundraising costs for calls or mailings to past donors who had given $20 or more to party, Poilievre said, “is not particularly important. It can go.”

The election commissioner’s report on the robocalls case noted that investigators were unable to obtain telephone records for the majority of complainants because there was no requirement for companies that make live or automated calls to record them. The amended law will increase the retention period to three years for the outgoing recording used in automated calls and scripts for live calls made by operators.

There is still no requirement for election call companies to retain recordings of the actual calls or even a list of numbers they called. That won’t be changed by Poilievre’s revisions.

Nor do they give the commissioner any of the new powers requested, such as the right to compel testimony that other regulator bodies already have, or any ability to look into the books of political parties to verify their election spending is legal.

Poilievre also said the bill will maintain the current rules that allow Elections Canada to appoint central poll supervisors, rather than turn that responsibility over to the parties, as the bill originally proposed.

gmcgregor@ottawacitizen.com

Twitter.com/glen_mcgregor

Here are the federal government’s proposed changes to its Fair Elections Act:

Current bill: Requires all voters to have identification that lists their addresses. Does not allow “vouching,” in which one voter attests to the identity and address of another voter.

Proposed amendment: All voters must have ID but the change allows voters whose ID doesn¹t have an address to sign an oath of residence. The oath must co-signed by another voter who has an ID with an address.

—

Current bill: Requires call centres to keep copies of the scripts they use for live calls to voters and recordings of the outgoing recorded message used in robocalls, for a period of one year.

Proposed amendment: Extends the data retention requirement to three years.

—

Current bill: Allows parties to spend on fundraising phone calls or mailing to people who have given $20 or more in the past, without the cost counting towards the party’s election pending cap.

Proposed amendment: Scraps this provision altogether.

—

Current bill: Limits the Chief Electoral Officer’s communications with voters to giving out only information about the time, date and ID requirements for elections.

Proposed amendment: Restricts Elections Canada advertising to notification of election times and ID, but clarifies that the Chief Electoral Officer and Commissioner of Canada Elections can communicate with Canadians about anything they wish. Also allows Elections Canada to do voter-awareness in primary and secondary schools.

—

Current bill: Allows the parties whose candidates finished first and second in that riding in the previous election to chose the central poll supervisors.

Proposed amendment: Keeps the power to choose these officials with Elections Canada.

Ottawa Citizen national affairs reporter covering government and politics on Parliament Hill. Specializing in data journalism and social-media evangelism. Suffering the wrath of political partisans since... read more 1998. Follow me on Twitter at @glen_mcgregor or email me at gmcgregor @ottawacitizen.com.View author's profile